Even before I was able to get a post up about the broken Story Progression option in Sims 3 (though there was a toggle to turn it off, it was not working), the Devs on the Sims 3 forums have already posted a work around for the PC game version.
1) Find your game executable. It should be here: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin
2) Create a shortcut on your desktop to the TS3.exe.
3) Right-Click on the shortcut and choose “Properties”
4) In the top line “Target:” go to the end of the line and add this tag –disablestoryprogression
** Make sure there is a space BEFORE the dash in your target line.
5) From this point on you will need to run your game from this shortcut and NOT through your launcher.
The idea behind the Story Progression feature was a good one, I feel. But the way it was added into the game (compounded by the inability to actually turn it off) has made a mess out of something with great potential.
What is Story Progression?
Story Progression is a new feature in the Sims 3 that was intended to make your neighborhood a fluid, living world around your Sims family. One of the biggest issues with the Sims 2 was that as your family aged and changed, all of the Townies and NPCs remained the same. This caused scenarios such as having a Sim who fell in love as a teen with another teen Townie… to grow up into an adult or young adult while that romantic interest remained a teen. Bummer.
In order to fix things like that, Story Progression was put into place. The town changes and grows as you play your Sim family… which I think is a fantastic idea! The only problem is, the results of this have been very, very random.
We’ve seen families moved out and deleted from the neighborhoods — which isn’t a big deal until it happens to a family of Sims that are user created! Suddenly, that house and family you worked so hard on setting up simply doesn’t exist anymore… just because you were playing another family. NPCs and Townies move in and out of other Townie homes… sometimes we’ve seen single parent families suddenly having children (can we assume these are adopted because they are genetically missing a mother or father in the family tree?). That can be a pain, too, if that Sim was your own Sim’s romantic interest. Suddenly there’s a random baby in their house and any family plans you had there just went out the window.
I think where the most uproar comes from is the fact that user created Sims are being played by the game against the user’s wishes. Suddenly, your painstakenly created Sim has changed their job, moved into a different house and is living with some other Sims and married with children! All because you were playing with another family in the same neighborhood.
Sure… we could all stick to playing just one family and make new games for each family we want to play. But that means our user created Sims can never interact. What fun is that?
So while the Story Progression feature makes a great way to shake up the game for some, for others, it takes away the player’s control of their own creations. I would never, for example, want to use Story Progression in a neighborhood where I am recreating the Wayrift families. It would be terrible if I turned around and Ben had ten kids with Patty Townie and worked part time at the supermarket! Not the scenario I would choose for him at all. However, I will use Story Progression to play my “random Sim” legacy neighborhood… which is more of an unstructured, non-cheat, let time take its toll game for me. And I’m quite interested to see what comes of that!
One suggestion I’ve seen often on the Sims 3 forum is that the player should get a choice on which households can be changed through Story Progression. Maybe make it a checkbox to turn it on or off for specific families while the rest of the world is fluid. I think this is an excellent idea that I hope Maxis will take stock in. I would love to PLAY in an ever changing neighborhood. I just don’t want MY families to change without my permission.
Note, though there is a checkbox in the settings that should allow you to turn Story Progression off, it does not work — confirmed by the developers. Luckily, the work around for PC is listed above. This is enough for me until they get a patch out for it.
Happy Simming!
I still found an issue.. when I play for a few simdays my other families
keep getting paid for their jobs.. so if I play for 20 simdays and I switch
to another familie they suddenly have 25000 or something
That’s an interesting bug — though at least it doesn’t do anything negative to your family. I agree, though, I don’t want to come back to find my other families making tons of money that I didn’t do for myself.
I also had an issue with one Sim family talking to a member of another Sim family. When he asked about occupation, she told him she was unemployed even though I know that she’s a member of the criminal track. She only just got the job, so I wondered if that had something to do with it. Or maybe, members of the criminal track just pretend to be unemployed to newly met Sims! XD
I hope the developers make a patch quicksmart for this story progression problem. I’m sick of every family I create randomly ending up with a baby.
All I want out of Story Progression is promotions, a raise in relationships, earning money, and nothing else!
Reply to Fears: I think thats hardly an issue, but I’m not sure whether earning money is apart of the story progression or not. I’d be far more worried of my family got deleted or ended up with a baby randomly.
*Fers
I completely agree, Sims Devotee!
I’m hoping once they get a patch for it, Non-Story-Progression mode will allow us to play the same as Sims2. Though I’d love to see options for each household eventually, allowing us to turn them on or off depending on how we’d like to play the game. I also would like to see a little more logic in the way the Story Progression works. Random children makes little sense. : /
So I tried this work around and nothing seems to have happened. My other families in the neighborhood didn’t stop. One family acquired a new baby, while another’s children grew up. Does anyone else have trouble with this fix?
Chris and Jesse — If you having aging on, all of the families in your neighborhood will continue to age along with your own — so that may be the reason for your children growing up. If the family that had a baby was already going to have a baby before you made the fix, that baby would be born regardless.
The official forms said:
- Any pre-made pregnant Sims will still have their babies.
- If Aging is on, Sims will still die.
- As YOUR Sims get new jobs, other Sims in the neighborhood may have their careers reassigned to become your boss or co-workers.
Okay, I followed the steps of stopping the story progression, but my whole town still is aging. When I looked under the options button I saw that the Aging button was diabled, but Story Progression was still there and unchecked. D=
Could this be the reason why my Sims randomly sell off their Collectibles in their Inventories whenever I go to play another family? Or will turning this on still cause bugs/seeds/rocks/minerals to be sold when you leave the lot? Either way, I’m glad to have found this. After having one Sim get randomly demoted, and another got a girlfriend that I didn’t give him. I haven’t yet noticed anything wrong with random baby spawn, but I’ve hardly played with the Townie Sims, so I might just be blind.
i also followed the steps do manually disable story progression, but my neighbourhood is still progressing is there another way to disable it?
There should be a patch out now to fix the story progression bug. The toggle now works, according to Maxis.
Another option is the Indie Mod. I’ve been playing around with this mod with fairly good results. So you might want to check it out:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=349344#
After installing the shortcut…when i click to on the shortcut launcher to play it says Error Code 282!!!!!
Marie – as mentioned in the comment above, this shortcut is no longer needed. Maxis has released a patch to fix this problem which can be installed through your Sims 3 launcher.
I’m so confused. I’ve been playing this game since i got it when it first came out but i’m still playing the same family. I don’t understand computer talk, but i want to know if, even with the new updates, the children in the house move out, will i be able to play from their households, but not have any negative effects made to my original household? I don’t want my sims to age when i’m not playing them, and i don’t want any change in their lives. If i can’t do this , this game is completely useless to me. I’m getting bored too quickly, i think i’ll end up going back to Sims 2 soon. I love the fact that townies grow with your family, but i want to lock my own households.
I have all the updates installed from the game launcher but the the disabling the story progression box still doesn’t work. Have they actually said that they fixed that problem through the updates or is it just assumed?
Is there anyway to get your family back after they have moved away during story progression?
J: If there is, I haven’t heard about it. I’m sorry. I know that the Sim’s newest patch is supposed to make it so families that you have played don’t move out anymore. So be sure to patch your game up to the newest update to prevent this from happening.
Rae: Yes, the patch notes say that the updates should fix the toggle box.
The thing that bothers me the most is that my sim will have a baby while my friend is playing her sim and the baby is automatically named!
I never had that problem, but I wish there was a cheat to turn off progression for particular family.
What exactly does the story progression mode affect? If I have a household with a child and that child grows up and moves out, when I switch to play with the child’s household will its parents still continue and age? Sorry if that’s confusing.
Help me please, i’m desperate! I wrote this “–disablestoryprogression” and i’ve done all of what it says but it pop ups an error that says “The initializing of the game is impossible. Error code 282″. When i erase the “–disablestoryprogression” and save it, it works perfectly! I’m so angry! I want this story progression to be disabled. I don’t want my other sims to do whatever they want !!!
The newest patch should have fixed the toggle issue with story progression. This work around isn’t needed anymore. Just make sure your game is up to date and you should be fine.